Jase

What does it say about Lampard if we become a one man team (again)?

Back-to-back losses all of a sudden since that interview came out. 😭

You might want to play that on FIFA or Football Manager.

Think what is obvious is that Lampard would likely not have gotten this job had it not been for the transfer ban. But we had it and after the whole thing with Sarri, this became a marriage of convenience. While Lampard has not failed entirely, I don't think he has truly convinced yet either. We are building a new team but at the same time, Lampard and his coaching staff are still inexperienced at the highest level. It's a situation of the blind leading the blind at the moment.

But there is less emphasis on those players either side of the central striker to provide the width and in turn, they can operate closer with that striker.

We discussed this before but no thanks.

I highly doubt we would have gotten Klopp back then given our constant hiring/firing nature.

That's their next HOME game. They go to Southampton this weekend.

Problem is we don't know when they will play that game. So for now, F that.

Somehow, we're still ahead of City and they go to Southampton at the weekend, IIRC.

Nothing wrong with 3-4-3, no? We played it last season, Pulisic played there a few times and pretty sure Werner also played in the 3-4-3 (not just 3-5-2) at Leipzig.

I don't necessarily disagree with you. I just merely pointed out that if we're going to make this a thing, then it needs work.

I changed the main picture of the thread. Happy now, @Blue Armour @Muzchap!?

Lampard said CHO and Ziyech will probably be back in training this week but their availability for this game is yet to be determined.

It still feels like square pegs in round even with Pulisic available. Werner is not a winger and he looks lost out wide, whether on the LW or RW. Pulisic can only really operate effectively on the LW. That's already a problem. All good when everyone is functioning properly but it looks like we've hit a wall and maybe opponents have already figured us out. And the reason why I also said today was the perfect time to change to a back 3 is because we have not beaten Nuno's Wolves with a back 4 (D1 L2) but have beaten them with a back 3 (W2).

City just drew with West Brom at home. Like WHAT THE FUCK!?

But that's not the official way of comparing? Anyway, not much difference... Brighton (+2) Liverpool (=) West Brom (-2) - compared with Watford Crystal Palace (=) Southampton (+1) Man Utd (+1) Burnley (=) Sheffield Utd (+2) Newcastle (+3) Spurs (-2) Leeds (+3) - compared with Bournemouth Everton (=) Wolves (-3)

We're not even attempting to play combination football, so yes you're making excuses. But these things need work on the training ground? Guardiola, for example, didn't just make his sides play tiki-taka football by just attempting it. We can attempt it all we want but if opponents just defend deep and have lots of players back with no space to play in the penalty box, then it's hard to do that because we would likely just get crowded out and lose the ball anyway. Furthermore, someone's hold-up play like Abraham is average at best while Giroud blows hot and cold with it. It's not like we have a peak Drogba leading the line to play off.

Precisely what I and I think most others have been thinking. And not to mention, Wolves were the perfect opponent today to go with the back 3 given how well we did against them last season. But nope, Lampard rather fit square pegs in round hole instead.

He's been here since Aug 2019, all I'm seeing is excuses sorry It's not excuses and we did buy a number of new players, TBF.

I am aware of that but how does one go about selecting which side to compare? For example, I could pick the Bournemouth game to make it look bad while you could pick the Norwich one to make it look good. It's why I always feel uneasy when people do that.

Everyone talks about runs ffs, we can play combination football. I'm talking about 1-2 passes, remember when Hazard, Willian, Fabregas and Pedro used to do that under Conte? You still need to make runs to make the 1-2s work and combination play such as this needs work and time on the training ground. We don't have a lot of time between games this season, do we? It's all rest, recovery, minor preparation and then go play again. Not that I think Lampard is a kind of tiki-taka manager mind. What Conte had, especially in his first season here, was plenty of time because we weren't in Europe. He was able to drill attacking patterns and plays relentlessly into the players. That said, his football also got predictable after a while.

Fair...but now that things aren't working so well, what are the changes?

This is the difference between the fixtures so far and the same fixtures last season: Brighton (+2) Liverpool (=) West Brom * Crystal Palace (=) Southampton (+1) Man Utd (+1) Burnley (=) Sheffield Utd (+2) Newcastle (+3) Spurs (-2) Leeds * Everton (=) Wolves (-3) West Brom and Leeds are of course the newly promoted sides and them aside, the difference of points gained/loss is only +4. But at the end of the day, points gained/loss from same fixtures last season don't matter here. The fact of the matter is, we're 4 points worse off after 13 games this season than at the same stage last season and both times, our form began to plummet when there was a big talk of challenging for the title. ['=' = no difference to the number of points picked up this season vs last season]